Comets and Catastrophe Series

President Donald Trump, or his people, were clearly trying very hard over this past weekend to douse the flames ignited across the Middle East by US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to dampen the enthusiasm of Israeli celebrations following the Dec. 6 announcement and to calm Arab protests against the United States and Israel. He tried to make clear that the status of the contested city would only be determined within the framework of a permanent arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was also mobilized to put out the fires. Addressing the UN Security Council on Dec. 8, she noted that Trump had not taken a stand on Jerusalem's boundaries, adding that the issue of sovereignty over the city "is still to be decided on by Israelis and Palestinian in negotiations."

Tillerson promised that the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem was at least two years away. He cited unspecified "logistical" considerations as the reason for this delay, although those in the know say there is nothing preventing the embassy in Tel Aviv from calling in the movers tomorrow. Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, tweeted last week that a recently completed US consular facility in West Jerusalem could fit the bill and house relocated embassy staff.

Cellphones are growing in popularity every year. Smartphones enable users to call, text and use the internet from almost anywhere there is a cellphone signal. From the convenience of a piece of equipment that fits in your pocket, you can communicate and receive news from anywhere in the world. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 90 percent of Americans own a cellphone and two-thirds of those are smart phones.

The cellphone has become the most rapidly accepted device in the history of consumer technology. Pew attributes the rise in popularity to the development and accessibility of smartphones. Unfortunately, this connectivity to a world well outside your physical boundaries places you in danger of disconnecting from what is real and important in your immediate environment. The New York Times observes:

"The near-universal access to digital technology, starting at ever younger ages, is transforming modern society in ways that can have negative effects on physical and mental health, neurological development and personal relationships, not to mention safety on our roads and sidewalks."

Comment: The jury has been out on the negative effects of cellphone use for years now. Use them as sparingly as possible and never keep them on you at all times.

The following is a talk hosted by Theryn Meyer in Vancouver with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson on the topic of the devouring mother. While this might seem like some obscure psychological discussion, with no bearing on your personal reality, I can assure you nothing could be further from the truth. The human psyche is fundamentally the same, at its core level, which means that people tend to act in similar ways given certain conditions—this is the basis for social engineering and propaganda. Insofar as this topic is concerned, the devouring mother is something almost everyone faces in their lives and has played a major role in shaping the world for millennia.

From a psychological perspective, war and the lust for it is driven by a deep need for social acceptance. In society this comes in the form of the motherland, who demands of her children-citizens that they honor their obligations to the state, one of which being the need to go to war so as to prove one's worth to society.

Comment: If you'd like to see a real-life example of the 'devouring mother' archetype in action through a single person, read this article:

Februrary 2017 continued on as January started. Massive flooding in California due to "atmospheric rivers" dumping large amounts of rain on coastal areas and snow on the Sierra Nevada. The snow melt from this caused further flooding in Nevada. Eastern Canada also experienced record snowfall, as did Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Japan.

Wildfires broke out in Eastern Australia and New Zealand while record rainfall inundated Western Australia. Major flooding also hit several South American nations including Chile, Peru and Colombia.

There are at least 30 active volcanoes around the world right now, including a really impressive one in Guatemala. Massive earth cracks opened in Pakistan and Italy.

These are just some of the chaotic events we present in this month's Sott 'Earth Changes' video compilation.

Modern medicine often feels like magic: A technician pricks your skin, draws a drop of blood and whisks it away into another room. Oftentimes, this gives the doctor enough information to make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment. But for people in developing countries, these kinds of diagnostics can be more science fiction than reality.

Modern medicine relies heavily on technology, like centrifuges, that are costly, bulky and require electricity. In many places around the world, this kind of equipment can be hard to come by. But in a new study published online today (Jan. 10) in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers described an inexpensive, hand-powered centrifuge that's based on an ancient toy and could help doctors working in developing countries.

The centrifuge is the workhorse of modern medical laboratories. The device spins samples at high speeds to separate particles or cells based on size and density, effectively concentrating specific components. Most diagnostics "are like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Manu Prakash, lead researcher on the new study and an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. A centrifuge, Prakash said, puts all the needles in one place, making them easier to find.

Justice minister confirms arrests of almost half of the 70,000 people investigated following July's failed coup attempt.

Turkish courts have placed 32,000 suspects under arrest on charges of links to a group run by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the July 15 coup, the justice minister said.

Bekir Bozdag told Turkey's NTV television on Wednesday that 70,000 people had been investigated after the coup and of them 32,000 remanded in custody.

"This process is continuing," he said. The numbers of those arrested marks an increase of more than 10,000 from those previously given by the government. Bozdag said that there could be new arrests, while some of those currently arrested could still be freed under judicial control or freed entirely.

Comment: The U.S. has dragged its feet for months over extraditing Gulen, despite the mountain of evidence Turkey has provided regarding his organization's involvement in the attempt to overthrow the Erdogan government. The CIA asset has friends in very high places.

Despite 10 months of negotiations between the US and Russia, the two biggest players in the Syrian conflict, the ceasefire is close to unravelling

At about 5pm on Saturday, two US F-16 fighter bombers and two A-10 specialised ground attack aircraft bombed what they believed was a concentration of Isis fighters besieging pro-government forces in the city of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.

Whoever it was in the US Air Force who had misidentified the target as Isis made a disastrous error; the US planes were attacking Syrian Army soldiers fighting Isis at a position called Jebel Tharda close to Deir Ezzor airport. The city has been besieged by Isis for over a year and 110,000 civilians are trapped inside. By the time the US bombing raid was over it had killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers and injured another 100, enabling Isis to overrun the survivors before being forced to retreat by a counter-attack backed by Russian airstrikes.

Comment: The US has the most sophisticated monitoring and surveillance systems in the world. With ISIS conveniently poised to take advantage of the situation, it's bordering on impossible to believe the US didn't know exactly what they were doing. Question is, who gave the order?

Comment: It is not Russia's fault the agreement 'did not work'. Pay special attention from 8:40 on.

For the second time in a month, a giant asteroid just missed colliding with Earth and space science programs around the world were completely oblivious to the threat raising concern that our ability to detect such a cataclysmic threat is sorely lacking.

At least sixty people have been killed in a suicide bombing that targeted a southern Yemeni militia compound in the town of Aden, a spokesman for security services told AFP. The Islamic State terror group has taken responsibility for the attack.

Sky News Arabia reports that 71 people have been killed, citing local medics. At least 67 were wounded in the explosion, director general of Yemen's health ministry in Aden, al-Khader Laswar said, as cited by Reuters. He put the death toll at 54.

A suicide bomber reportedly drove a car into a building being used by the Popular Resistance, a local militia supporting Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is now in exile, witnesses told Reuters.

The explosion took place in front of "Sanafir" school in the Muammar Gaddafi neighborhood in the north of the city, which is named in honor of the former Libyan leader, AFP reported.

The terrorist act comes just a day after the Red Cross announced it would begin supplying Yemen with morgues to due to the growing death toll - something rare for the organization, which usually focuses on providing food, water, and healthcare.

Security officials in Yemen say a suicide attacker in the southern city of Aden set off a massive car bomb on August 29 -- killing 25 pro-government troops who were preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia to fight along Yemen's northern border.
[...]
The car bomber attacked a staging area near two schools and a mosque in Aden where the troops were registering to join the expedition.

Two terminals of New York City's JFK Airport were evacuated and all flights temporarily canceled after authorities received reports of shooting. Police did not find evidence of any shots fired, and the airport has resumed normal operations.

The shots were first heard at 9:30 p.m. local time in John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 8, according to witnesses.

Another round of shots was fired later at 10:15 p.m. in Terminal 1 of the airport, PIX11 reported.